I'm home from work for the 2nd straight day (I never miss work, haven't in two years and I hardly ever get sick). I had been battling what seemed like a minor sore throat and runny nose a few weeks back, but the past 2 days it has been bad. Stuffy nose, cough, hard to swallow, swollen lymph nodes, pain in the muscles of my throat.

Obviously, with my state of anxiety and my fear of *** especially in the mouth realm, which I hope is my last hurdle -- because I've come to terms with the twitching elsewhere -- this is a bad time to have symptoms like this. I'm ALMOST certain that it is just due to my current sickness, whatever it is I have, perhaps the common cold or some kind of flu or bug. BUT, my mind goes to ***. My throat really hurts. It is hard to swallow water even. Even the past few weeks, whenever I drink water, it feels if it gets hung up by some lump in my throat, which is scary and was before this bug I'm fighting.

I'm looking to see how people with BFS battle a common cold without their mind going to ***. Or, if I have more than a cold here? I know I've been told to treat my anxitey and I'm finally back on Celexa, so I am taking due action in the regard. But needless to say I'm scared. And being here at home all day is NOT HELPING!

RyanI am here for about a year, and I clearly see that you started from fearing pains and aches in your leg, than you feared of a toe which was not mowing, then you had a mouth issue becasue of too much self-testing for a bulbar fears, then you had a cold fear lasting already for a few weeks as far as I can remember. It is a clear declining trend for me.I have no idea if you are doing something of what we suggested you to do (antianxiety treatment, speaking therapy etc.), but for me it looks like you do not, like you prefer to stay in that ever-alerted state and ALS fears are more precious for you than your own life and well-being. Usually antianxiety treatment HELPS, at least the person having treatment never goes down on that spiral, and you are perfectly down there.it is good that since that ALS fearing *beep* started with you, you did not missed a day on the work. it actually proves that you have anxiety disorder only. But few weeks ago we had here a post from a fellow whose career was crushed by his ALS fears. I would not like to be a Cassandra, but every day lived in that way brings you closer to big dramas, losses and failures. Believe me it is a common way of every anxious sufferer who does not attent his or her vital need - i.e., takes no care for anxiety disorder.

Therapy is the only answer to your question. You are really on a very dangerous way to self-destruction and I'm afraid you are well advanced on it.

I've always appreciated both of your knowledge, understanding and insight!

I've been doing much better and I'm trying to realize that my fear 2 years ago is the same fear I have today....and while I do get new symptoms often, I have to remember that I've been through this crash course of fear, and it has always proven to be just fear..despite the twitching which is very real; the soreness, the mouth stuff, like, all of these things are real, but they aren't ***, and I have to REMEMBER THAT.

I'm back on my anxiety meds and doing much better.

I come here today to just ask 3 questions, rationally:1.) Anyone get soreness in their shoulders and neck?2.) Excess saliva, at times it will fall out during certain activities3.) Pain in lower jaw, like under mouth, and chin?

In the past I would have jumped straight to *** for all 3! But I'm almost 100% this is something innocent!

Having a cold vs. **S symptoms isn't even like comparing apples to oranges. It's more like comparing BBQ pork rinds to herbal tea. You are connecting dots that are light years away from each other, because of your anxiety. It would be as random as saying, "my dog has fleas, and therefore I must be dying of **S."

A cold is a cold. Infection is infection. A virus is a virus. Those pesky little germ-cooties get in and attack your immune system and the resultant symptoms are basically because your body fights back; inflammation causes phlegm, irritation, redness, painful swallowing, cough, etc.

NMD's kill off muscle tissue by attacking the nerves that supply, and stimulate the muscle. When muscle dies, it stops working. There is little pain associated with this dying process, in general, because pain receptors are part of the death, as well. Kind of like cutting off the power to your house, all the appliances just go dead. So you wouldn't get painful swallowing with bulbar **S, you would simply stop being able to swallow, at all. You would not have "increased saliva," because saliva has nothing to do with the muscles, it's an entirely different bodily system.

You can't conjure up **S just by obsessing over it, any more than you can prevent yourself from getting it, later on. Truly, it behooves us to acknowledge our absolute powerlessness over all things in life. Anything that even seems to be under our control, really isn't, anyway, so we might as well try and enjoy this ride. I suggest you put this thing to rest.

Blessings, Sue

Last edited by SuziQ on February 7th, 2013, 4:03 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Be careful about reading health books. You may die of a misprint. Mark Twain

Truly, it behooves us to acknowledge our absolute powerlessness over all things in life. Anything that even seems to be under our control, really isn't, anyway, so we might as well try and enjoy this ride.

I come here today to just ask 3 questions, rationally:1.) Anyone get soreness in their shoulders and neck?2.) Excess saliva, at times it will fall out during certain activities3.) Pain in lower jaw, like under mouth, and chin?

To directly address one of your questions.Yes I have gone through the excess saliva stage. I have had times when it "fell out." This was an anxiety thing and not a muscle thing.

If you have had twitches for two years and are eating your breakfast and it goes down. You are in great shape. The problem is that we become over fixated. The first thumper I had in my leg all I could think was leg, leg, leg. What happened then...it thumped more. Then I thought leg leg leg disaster, terminal, dead. Then of course the leg took a vacation and the hot spot moved somewhere else. Then....

Right now you are thinking mouth, head, neck and before you know it, it is swallow, swallow, swallow,,,, spit, spit, spit.

But in the end if it has been going for two years you can almost give a money back guarantee it is BFS, BfS, BFS and not the Big Worry.

99.9% of the people on the planet would have to answer to yes to number one. Everyone gets pains and soreness here and there. The problem is WE become fixated..........

Last edited by talltwitcher on February 7th, 2013, 2:00 pm, edited 7 times in total.

Well now, I am so happy I could twitch..... Hey, What was that? Huh, I didn't mean every cotton pickin muscle I have!

I've been going through the mouth/jaw/tongue obsession in recent times - not a lot of fun

i had a spell of a few weeks where I was hypersalivating and focusing on my swallowing a lot, i was waking up hoarse and had mucus in the throat a lot - it all passed, hypersalivation is an anxiety symptom, focusing on swallowing is a classic ocd symtpom, hoarseness and mucus can be a lot of things from allergies to a common cold to lpr

I am still getting some annoying twitches in my face, near the mouth area, nose etc., and also in the rest of my body but i think i am just freaking out about them more because of bulbar fears which is completely irrational

I have getting neck pain, particularly at the back of neck just above the top of the back but i think it is related to posture and being sedentary and not exercising the last few weeks

you see the problem with our fears is we try to connect every symptom to them and that's not helpful

if you can talk, chew, swallow then you are ok, everything else is just noise - people who present with bulbar usually go in with slurred speech as a first symptom, i don't think i have read a case where anyone has presented with bodywide twitching for years and vague symptoms relating to saliva and neck pain, a neurologist would probably laugh you out of the office and wouldn't even do an emg, s/he'd probably just prescribe anti-anxiety meds

i know the fear and the twitching are very real and the weird symptoms are annoying but anxiety exerts a powerful force on the body

you have got to start accepting the huge probability is bfs = you'll be fine = go with that, accept nothing in life is 100% for anybody and live your life

aztwitchy wrote:the day you stop obsessing of ALS is the day you begin moving towards feeling better and getting back to "normal"

This is true. There is no recovery from BFS unless this foundational aspect is tackled first.

I will repeat - you will never ... get better ... until you find a way to consider ALS not "on the table".

For me ... this came in two parts: I feared because it was logical to fear. It was logical to fear because I had just begun twitching. I was only 2 weeks in. I was only 1 month in. But as I got two 3 months in ... I started to realize this wasn't progressing towards anything. I saw a couple repeat blood tests on my CPK and saw that it wasn't going up. I had worried myself into 20lbs of weight loss and a sedentary lifestyle. I self induced and punished my body with my worries those first two months. But there I was passing the 3 month mark and I was still able to walk.

Some small facts helped me. Like for example knowing that ALS has a point scale of something like 48 points. And you typically progress 1 point per month towards ultimate death. Well here I was 3 - 4 months in and I should be much worse. But I wasn't. So there was some logical and reasonable facts for me to finally lean on. Then I did research (which everyone discouraged me away from) and learned about the 20+ other conditions that manifest with twitching, cramps, pain, aches, and neurological symptoms. None of them deadly. None of them ALS.

It was another realization that helped me: Every time I get that "twinge" of nervousness in my stomach - ever so slightly - I am prolonging BFS by another "X" hours. I finally came to the realization that every nervous feeling, every worry, every moment of increased blood pressure, every event of fear. Every butterfly ... equals prolonging my own BFS. I came to the point where my goal was going the entire day without a single event like this. And i believe this is huge for helping the whole body calm down.

So for me, it was the passing of time with no drastic downslide, the education on the facts surrounding ALS, the awareness of so many other twitching conditions out there, the focus on eliminating stressful thoughts, and the wonderful day I got off my *ss and started exercising again, only to regain my strength quite quickly, and gain back all my weight.

Coming to the point where you can stop worrying about ALS is a different process for everyone. My brain is wired a certain way, and it took certain specific things to put me at ease. Its important for you to find what will finally convince you. And at that point you can begin to calm your system. And that's when the miraculous begins to happen. A calm system equals calming BFS symptoms.

You can self-induce BFS for the next 8 years, or you can look at all the information out there, take a deep breath, relax, and begin to heal.

One other thing: I took a break from this forum for some time as well. Even to this day, I do not read the first post in any thread. That is my method for keeping my sanity. You may try this trick. Every new thread - skip to the second post where inevitably there will be someone correcting misinformation, reassuring, or explaining why such and such doesn't mean MS or ALS. Its that first post which always contains the "easter egg of terror". Those single sentences which make your heart just sink, and the stress waves come over you all over again. If that means avoiding this forum for good? Do it. Those events could add 3 days to my twitching all by themselves. I now avoid most new threads here and only focus on my own threads which are usually full of uplifting discussions.

Having a cold vs. **S symptoms isn't even like comparing apples to oranges. It's more like comparing BBQ pork rinds to herbal tea. You are connecting dots that are light years away from each other, because of your anxiety. It would be as random as saying, "my dog has fleas, and therefore I must be dying of **S."

This is great, and I'm trying to remember that my "symptoms" don't connect with my fear!

Same with this:

I will repeat - you will never ... get better ... until you find a way to consider ALS not "on the table".

Although, I think I'm still far from this.

And I can certainly relate to this....especially after 2 years of this stuff

I self induced and punished my body with my worries those first two months. But there I was passing the 3 month mark and I was still able to walk.

And this as well

A calm system equals calming BFS symptoms.

because over say the past 3-4 months, my twitching has gone DRASTICALLY! Because I almost never think about the twitching anymore. It was only this past week that I've had a constant twitch in my left knee.....which I know is MEANINGLESS!

Again, thank you all. Wonderful posts and information. I am curious though. Is soreness of the Jaw related to BFS? I have it below as well and a weird tingle in my chin :/ curious as to what this is.....and pretty certain it is in no way related to *** Also, I think I've mentioned this before or asked about it....but curious about the pain in my neck and related when I cough...I have a tingle in my throat, like, where my Adam's Apple is....a rattle, as if it is loose or something. I'm being calm here and finally taking all my valuable lessons learned here. I'm assuming this is nothing serious, but just want to check. It seems unusual.

I've been doing much much better this month! I think the anti-anxiety meds are helping as well.

I'm curious though.....I remember seeing something about this in my infancy here at AboutBFS, but at that time I tried to never read past the 1st line or two of a symptom of which I didn't currently have.

So, is ITCHING SKIN a symptom of BFS? Or is it something to be worried about? I've had it the past week, especially on the left bicep, which is somewhat worrisome, because I don't have a RASH or anything! No signs of irritation. Just a weird ITCH :<